Posts by Xris M

Isostatic movement of the continents due to loading and unloading occurs over timescales of thousands of years.

Data from Topex and Jason have clearly shown a GMSL rise over the last 20 years (although not an acceleration) but local sea levels will be affected by both the eustatic thermal expansion due to changes in the oceans thermal vertical profile and geoidal-eustatic changes due to changes in ice masses.

There are many different things going on and we can't yet model them all.

@Transmissible

Should we care?

Maybe, maybe not.

While current estimates of change (50cm (ish) sea level rise, increases in precipitation and extreme weather events) pose a level of risk the problem is the uncertainty of triggering one of 736 doomsday scenarios e.g. collapse of the West Antarctica Ice Sheet, disrupting the ocean conveyor, methane clathrate release, in which case we could be royally f**ked.

Damage

For something this size it will probably have a yield of between 100 to 1000 megatons, a 3km crater and a land impact would destroy a large urban area (e.g. New York/Tokyo/London).

Of course the chances of it hitting a major population zone are slim, a more likely oceanic impact would create a sizeable tsunami that, depending on its location, could affect a considerable number of people.

RE: balanced reporting

Have to love the fact that on the New Scientist article discussing this (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21203-climategate-2-hacked-emails-released.html) the second story down in the more news box is 'CO2 may not warm the planet as much as thought' (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21212-co2-may-not-warm-the-planet-as-much-as-thought.html).

Of course this research "omes from considering just one climate model, and unless it can be replicated".

Does this mean......

A title.

Ummm, does anyone know what time this is happening tomorrow. I only ask because I have exams and don't really want to spend all night revising only to find the world being destroyed around me before I even get a chance to sit them.

My time could be much better spent drinking beer and something like that is just going to annoy me.

Lots of rocks...

Surely lots of small rocks are better than one big one. If you had the choice between getting shot in the chest with either a large calibre (.50) handgun or a shotgun I would assume the chances of survival favour the latter.

If a plus Vatican sized object was to hit then your looking at world wide destruction, extending the impact area with multiple catherdrals may only destory North America.

Screw artillery sheel

Indeed

Exactly how large is the carbon footprint for producing the solar charger anyway? Considering its design, construction and transportation to the end user, how many of these need to be sold/used in order to see any positive net gain in total carbon reduction?

Interesting

Do other US surface vessels like Cruise and Destroyers also run off jet fuel?

The other limit of a carrier battle group is the fact that these vessels must also be refueled and technology like this could go a long way to improving their independence and reduce the need to rendezvous with tankers during combat situation.

A very simple solution

I propose that we have two separate electricity supply networks.

The first is mainly nuclear based, for all those who want as much electricity as the they can get all of the time, its supply of uranium will come form invading third world countries and eventually strip mining the moon.

The second network is only powered through non fossil fuel renewable energy sources for those that don’t mind having a limit on the amount of electricity they use and suffering from power outages but keeps their conscience clean.

Say what!!!!

"This was believed to be linked to "unnatural light at night affecting levels of hormones such as melatonin and estrogen"

Is not the more obvious reason here the fact that people living in areas with high light pollution are living in the most developed areas. The same developed areas that will also contain much more of every other sort of pollutant possible, from vehicle exhaust fumes to chemically processed foods to electromagnetic radiation.

Obviously not no, obviously a little bit of extra unwanted light at night is going to fuck us all up and destroy the world!